The Five Inseparable Brothers Poem by Alexandre Nodopaka

Once upon a time there lived five brothers.
Their tale, not unlike of the Brothers Karamazov.
As a matter of fact the first three were namesakes
and so was the illegitimate fourth except for
the fifth and last, Sasha, yours truly, nicknamed
Le Petit for the Greek Aléxandros the Great.

All brothers were well educated.
Dimitri the Eldest was savvy in Economics,
Ivan the Terrible in Politics and nicknamed
for a tsar of the same name.
Vanya the Fool was a middle child appropriately
nicknamed for having problems with his parents.

And finally, Sasha, who was a Jack of All Trades
since he knew more than a little on numerous
subjects to bamboozle anyone. He also appeared
to be the most learned. Now I hope you follow
their tribulations despite the numerical
complexity of characters.

And No! I am not trying to outdo Pasternak or
Solzhenitsyn or Sholokhov in terms of the
numerous characters in their novels and
confuse you.
My poem shall deal with the ethical debate of
God and free will and morality.

It shall be a spiritual drama of the moral
struggles concerning faith, doubt, judgment
and reason set against King Wrist
that held them prisoners.
It shall be the saga of five inseparable fingers
of the right hand followed by a sequel poem

dealing with the left hand in the tradition
of book publishers who attempt to cash in
on the success of an author's first best-seller
but like sex, by the time the second novel
raises its head the original thrill goes down.